Today in History for Jan. 22:
In AD 304 (traditional date) -- Vincent of Saragossa, one of the most famous martyrs of the early church, was imprisoned and then killed for refusing to consign the scripture to the fire. According to St. Augustine, his fame extended everywhere in the Roman Empire and "wherever the name of Christ was known."
In 1690, the Iroquois signed a peace treaty with the British government and the Great Lakes tribes.
In 1699, Bishop St. Valier established an elementary school at Quebec. It opened in October of that year.
In 1775, French physicist Andre Ampere, after whom the electrical unit is named, was born.
In 1807, Canada's first curling club, the Montreal Curling Club, was founded. The club's first game was played on the St. Lawrence River on April 11th of that year.
In 1864, the first session of the B.C. legislative council opened.
In 1878, Canada was given the right to decide whether it wanted to be included in British treaties.
In 1901, Queen Victoria died at age 82, ending her nearly 64-year reign -- the second-longest in British history. She was succeeded by her eldest son, who became King Edward VII.
In 1905, a peaceful march in St. Petersburg that marked the beginning of the Russian Revolution turned violent. "Bloody Sunday" saw more than 500 Russian workers killed by Czarist troops.
In 1922, Pope Benedict XV died. He was succeeded by Pius XI.
In 1944, during the Second World War, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy.
In 1949, Chinese Nationalists surrendered Beijing to the Communists in the country's civil war.
In 1959, 12 workers were killed in the Knox Mine Disaster in Port Griffith, Pa., when a mine became flooded with water from the Susquehanna River.
In 1964, Canada and the U.S. agreed to develop former president Franklin Roosevelt's summer home on Campobello Island, off New Brunswick, into an international park.
In 1964, the Columbia River Agreement was signed by the U.S. and Canada.
In 1970, the Boeing 747 made its first commercial flight when a Pan Am jumbo jet flew from New York to London.
In 1973, in its Roe versus Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortions during the first six months of pregnancy.
In 1973, Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, died at age 64.
In 1979, former Manitoba premier Ed Schreyer was installed as governor general. His term ended in 1984.
In 1980, the Soviet Union stripped Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov of his state awards and sent the dissident scientist into internal exile.
In 1988, a British man became the first murderer in the world convicted on the evidence of genetic fingerprinting. Police used samples of Colin Pitchfork's blood and saliva to prove he raped and murdered two schoolgirls. Genetic fingerprinting had been discovered only a few years before by a British researcher.
In 1991, the Commons voted 217-47 to endorse a UN resolution calling for military action against Iraq. Most New Democrats voted against it.
In 1992, Dr. Roberta Bondar became Canada's first woman in space when she and six other astronauts blasted off aboard the shuttle "Discovery." The cargo included slime mould, mouse embryos, and wheat and oat seeds as specimens for scientific experiments. The eight-day mission was a success and the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-born neurologist raved about the view from space.
In 1995, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Mass., at the age of 104.
In 1998, the Law Society of Upper Canada stripped disgraced hockey lawyer Alan Eagleson of his right to practise law for unbecoming conduct. Eagleson had pleaded guilty to fraud earlier in the month.
In 1998, Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty in Sacramento, Calif., to charges in his 18-year terror campaign in the U.S. He killed three people and injured 23 with mail bombs aimed mainly at those he considered technocrats. He later received a life sentence.
In 2006, Los Angeles Laker superstar Kobe Bryant scored a phenomenal 81 points -- the second-highest total in NBA history -- in a 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors. Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points on March 2, 1962 as his Philadelphia Warriors defeated the New York Knicks 169-147.
In 2007, the multiple murder trial of Vancouver-area pig farmer Robert Pickton began in New Westminster, B.C. He was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of 26 women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. But he went on trial on just six of the charges after the case was split into two. After a 10-month trial, Pickton was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder on Dec. 9th. Two days later, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. In 2010, the other 20 first-degree murder charges were formally stayed after the Crown announced it would not pursue the rest of its case because Pickton already faced the stiffest sentence available in Canadian law.
In 2008, actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment in Manhattan. He was 28. The official cause of death was listed as an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
In 2009, Microsoft Corp. announced it would eliminate up to 5,000 jobs to reduce costs. It was the first mass layoff in the company's 34-year history.
In 2009, the 2002 gold medal winning Canadian men's and women's hockey teams were named for induction to the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame. Also selected were pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who overcame a judging scandal to eventually claim gold in 2002.
In 2010, Canadian networks aired a star-studded one-hour benefit show in support of Haitian earthquake relief, ahead of Hollywood's own telethon. The English-French language Canadian efforts raised more than $20 million total with Ottawa matching the amount. The U.S. raised US$61 million, which did not include the sales of the musical performances on iTunes.
In 2012, former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, a sainted figure at the university for 46 years but scarred forever by a child sex abuse scandal involving his one-time heir apparent Jerry Sandusky, died due to complications from lung cancer. He was 85.
In 2013, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his hard-line allies fared far worse than expected in a parliamentary election, forcing him to reach across the aisle to court popular political newcomer Yesh Atid to cobble together a new coalition.
In 2014, Kathy Dunderdale announced she was resigning as premier of Newfoundland and Labrador amid growing pressure after two members left the Progressive Conservative caucus questioning her leadership. (Tom Marshall was later sworn in as the interim premier.)
In 2016, a young gunman killed two teen brothers at a home in La Loche, Sask., then went to the community school and killed a male teacher and a female aide and wounded seven others before he was apprehended there by RCMP. A 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder.
In 2019, the first Canada Food Guide facelift in 12 years was unveiled. It reflected a new approach by Health Canada aimed at promoting healthier eating and lifestyle choices, rather than emphasizing serving sizes and specific foods. It recommended that Canadians eat vegetables, fruits, whole grains and plant-based proteins 鈥� such as legumes, nuts and tofu 鈥� more regularly and stressed that water should be the beverage of choice as a way to stay hydrated without consuming calories.
In 2019, former Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay got 85.4 per cent of the vote for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Halladay spent 12 seasons in Toronto. The Jays retired Halladay's Number 32 on opening day of the 2018 season, four months after he died when the small sport plane he was piloting crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2020, Canada's Larry Walker headed to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Walker, from Maple Ridge, B.C., received 76.6 per cent of the vote by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America in his 10th and final year on the ballot, narrowly surpassing the 75 per cent required for induction.
In 2024, a 48-hour strike by transit supervisors at the Coast Mountain Bus Company began, shutting down bus and SeaBus service in Vancouver, affecting hundreds of thousands of commuters, after an unsuccessful effort by the union to attain a 25-per-cent raise for its members.
In 2024, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced plans to cap international student visas for the following two years, saying there would be a 35-per-cent reduction in new study visas issued that year as part of the government's efforts to deal with an ongoing housing crisis. Miller said new visas in 2024 will be capped at 364,000, down from nearly 560,000 in 2023.
In 2024, Cameroon started the world's first malaria vaccine program for children, stating it hopes to vaccinate 250,000 by the end of 2025. There are about 250 million cases of malaria each year in Africa, including 600,000, mostly in young children.
In 2024, thousands of Saskatchewan teachers held another one-day strike to try to get Premier Scott Moe's government to negotiate on class sizes and student supports. The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation argued funding to schools has not kept up with rising enrolment.
In 2024, Newfoundland and Labrador cabinet minister Derrick Bragg died at age 59 months after revealing his cancer diagnosis in June. He was first elected with the Liberals in 2015 and held several portfolios after being named to cabinet in 2019, the last before his diagnosis being fisheries, forestry and agriculture.
In 2024, the American and British militaries bombed multiple sites in Yemen that the Iranian-backed Houthis were using to attack shipping in the Red Sea, marking the eighth set of U.S. strikes on the rebel's missile launching and storage capabilities.
In 2024, dozens of family members of hostages held captive in Gaza by Hamas militants stormed a committee meeting in Israel's parliament to demand a deal be struck to win their loved ones' release. The bold move by civilians in Israel came as European foreign ministers joined growing international calls for Israel to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state after the war, something Israel strongly rejects.
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The Canadian Press
